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Category Archives: Rings

It has been a while since the blog had a bit of attention – but I have been really busy creating lots of lovely new jewellery so hopefully sharing a few of those today will more than make up for it. I am taking part in the Open Studios Ayrshire event in April this year which has given me a real focus for getting some ranges of jewellery together. It has also focused my mind on getting some suitable display designs together too, but I’ve had less inspiration on that front so far.

Rings seem to have been where my creative inspiration is at just now. Handmade rings are so beautiful, you get lovely feel to them and they have a tactile quality that you just don’t get with a cast ring. Please don’t get me wrong – I have a place in my heart for cast designs, but somwhere along the line my real love is a handformed ring. And so it is with these rings today.

Amethyst and sterling silver ring

The first ring has a beautiful little faceted amethyst set asymmetrically on a silver band that has an undulating edge on one side. I’m really pleased with the flow and character that this ring has. The amethyst is also a really very pretty colour – a clear light purple, not the most intense amethyst in the world, but with a beautiful glow to it, almost a kind of heather purple. I’ve already listed this amethyst ring on Etsy and it would make a fabulous Mother’s Day gift, especially if your Mum’s birthday is in February since amethyst is February’s birthstone.

Blue Sapphire and Silver Knuckle Ring

Next up is a ring that is a bit of an experiment for me. It is teeny, it only just fits my pinkie finger (that will be little finger to non-UKers) and is only a shade bigger than a size K. I made it this size as I was inspired by the current trend for knuckle rings that are cropping up all over Etsy and Instagram. And I also had this really pretty little blue sapphire that was looking for a home. And I always have some silver to hand. So put them together and what have you got? Well hopefully you agree it is a cute little knuckle ring!

Moonstone and peridot silver ring

The third ring for today is a different beast altogether. It is a great generous chunk of a ring, made of sterling silver and set with a stunning blue moonstone and two teardrop cabochon peridots. I am delighted with how it has turned out, but it is proving a bit of a devil to polish up, so it is still a work in progress on that front. Hopefully it will get finished soon and I’ll share the final version – watch this space!

Before I took a bit of a sabbatical from crazy for ruthie I had prepared quite a lot of jewellery components and sent them off to be hallmarked. By the time they arrived back from the Assay Office, life had changed and my jewellery bench was packed away for what ended up being a few years. When I unpacked and tidied up my jewellery kit over the holidays, I found the little bag of hallmarked “bits” just waiting to be made whole. One of the bits was this ring shank, so a bit of work to create the setting and a beautiful peridot later and here we go – a faceted peridot and silver ring. Although it doesn’t show too well in this photograph, the peridot is a stunning grassy green colour that suits the silver tube setting well, it is such a summery green that it seems very fitting that peridot is the birthstone of August.

For anyone looking for an alternative engagement ring (that is budget friendly too), the minimalist and modern look of would make it a lovely choice. It would also just be very pretty to wear every day too!

It has been lovely to have a bit of a break over the festive period, but while I’ve stayed away from the computer, I’ve still been pottering away at my workbench. So with Christmas being the time for giving and all that, it is quite nice that my main project over Christmas has been giving one of my customer’s ruby engagement ring it’s sparkle back – quite literally.

After getting a bit of a bump, a few of the prongs had broke on my customer’s ring and one of the diamonds had popped out of the engagement ring. Luckily, she actually managed to find the diamond but the ring was still a bit worse for wear. Needless to say I wasn’t quite organized enough to get a true “before” picture. Instead, I got stuck right in and, as you can see above, set about repairing the ring.

The engagement ring has been worn every day for the last 30 years, so the prongs in general were pretty worn, so it perhaps isn’t a surprise that a couple had given up the ghost when bumped. I do like the challenge of a repair – you aren’t starting with a blank canvas, instead, you have to work with what is already there, and fix it up so that it is strong yet just as beautiful as before. Rather than just fix the broken prongs and risk the others failing sometime soon, I un-set all the gemstones and retipped all the prongs. Then, after some filing and sanding, it was just a case of setting the ruby and the diamonds back where they belong and polishing the whole thing off so that it sparkled once again.

And here it is – the fully repaired ruby engagement ring which is now back on the hand of one happy customer after it got a a final polish – definitely the kind of feel good task that suits the festive period perfectly!